OK, secret is out! For everyone who was wondering how I managed to stay warm during the Chinese wedding in the freezing rural village...I had these self-heating pads stuck to my back underneath my waistcoat. Inspired from Japan- they have limestones inside which react with the body and so heat up to keep you warm for about four hours on the go. There is no luxury of any Central Heating or AC there so this did the trick.

Wedding cake and card given by Emirates airline cabin crew on flight to Dubai from London. Great flight...photos on their camera came out better (yes, hard to believe that a PHOTOGRAPHER could not take his own photo!)...never had 12 crew surrounding my seat...what a celebration!: Photo Copyright Navjot Singh

Champagne to celebrate the upcoming wedding given by Emirates airline cabin crew on flight to Dubai from London: Photo Copyright Navjot Singh

When your fiancée is flying from London back to her hometown in China for Chinese New Year and in order to prepare for our wedding (which is on Chinese New Year itself!), you want to do something to make her trip extra special. Unfortunately because of logistical and personal reasons, I could not go on the same flight as her, and will be joining her a week later in Yangzhou. So, I passed a kind request to the lovely team in the PR department at British Airways to see if they could do something. I was hoping that the Captain would make an announcement, but the wonderful crew of flight BA169 from London to Shanghai exceeded all expectations. Not only did they upgrade her to Business Class (known as Club World at BA), but she was given a surprise congratulatory announcement in-flight. I could only wish I was there, but what a flight she had. Great stuff. Massive thanks to the Senior Purser, Captain and the whole operating crew of BA169, and of course, the ground staff at BA's head office in London. You guys are amazing. The perfect customer service that one can ever hope for.

Getting the wedding photos done is a special experience in China. We spent the whole day in the studios and on location in Yangzhou- with me trying my best to fit myself into suits that would normally fit a medium-sized Chinese person: Photo Copyright Navjot Singh

Just like as in the majority of Asian cultures, one of the events that Chinese people like to splash out their wealth on are weddings (and birthdays too). The average price of a Chinese wedding can run into hundreds of thousands of Renmenbi. Seen here is a lavish wedding party taking place at The Ritz-Carlton, Shenzhen.

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LIFE MATTERS

Here I share my thoughtsand experiences duringmy travels, and how some things have affected my life as an expat and world traveller. Travelling is about capturing that moment in life. Every word, view and opinion on this page is that of Navjot Singh - except where indicated. The most recent is at the top. Scroll down to read the archive. Or search using CTRL+F (COMMAND + F) and enter a keyword to search the page. Just some of the stories you never heard before.

The NAVJOT-SINGH.COMweb BLOG is separate to this web site....Clickblog, which may not be visible in somecountries due to localfirewall restrictions,so in those cases thisweblog may be read. The weblog also includes some of my press trip reports- most of which are not published on the official blog because of copyright issues. The weblog also contains articles that may be associated directly with a PR trip for a country, airline or a hotel. These are PR reviews done in relations with various companies.